The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-20
TO REDUCE TAXATION.
A RESOLUTION INTRODUCED BY
SENATOR PUGH.
The Taxes Should be Reduced to the

1lSC-GOT6rAu1eub I0l6grapnY.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19.-In the Senate to-
day among the papers presented to the Sen
ate was a communication from the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, with a copy of the re-
port of Special Agent Tingle on the condi-
ton of affairs on the sea islands of Alaska.
1t was referred to the Committee ON Foreign
Relations Also memorial of the Consti-
tutional Convention of the Territory of
Utah asking admission into the Union as a
State with copies of the constitution. 1t
was referred to the Committee on Terrific
ries
Among the bills introduced and referred
were the following:
By Mr.. Hoar-Relating to the celebration
of the centennial of the Inauguration of the
constitution.
Among the bills reported favorably from
the committees and placed on the calendar
was Mr.. Blairs bill to aid in the establish
ment and temporary support of common
schools.
Mr.. Powyer called up his motion to re-
consider the vote whereby last Monday
the resolution offered by Mr.. Butler for the
appointment of a select committee to inquire
as to the advisability Of establishing gov
ernmen6 postal telegraph was agreed to.
- Mr.. Butler asked Mr.. Sawyer to state the
object of the motion to reconsider.
Mr.. Sawyer said that his object was to
have the subject referred to the Post Office
Committee, where it properly belonged.
Mr.. Salisbury said the subject had been
before the Post Office Committee for six
years, and had been fully considered by it.
Reference to a select committee would be
vote of want OF confidence either in the
ability or willingness of the Post Office Com
mitteo to deal with the subject
Mr.. Butler diSclaimed any idea of reflect
ing, i'll the remotest degree, upon the Post
Office Committee. and he withdrew all OPP
position to the motion to reconsider, and
consented to have the matter referred to the
Post Office Committee. The vote was ac-
cordingly reconsidered, and the subject of
postal telegraphy was referred to the Post
Office Committee
Mr.. Pugh offered the following resolu-
tion, and proceeded to address the Senatein
support OF it:
ResoIoed. That the most important and press
ing duty of the. present session of Congress is
to revise and so amend existing internal
tax and tariff laws as to reduce the annual
revenues to be collected therefrom to the neces-
sary wants of the Federal government, and no
more than it needs TO pay its matured debts,
and discharge its obligations under the laws of
Congress, without Gripping or deranging any
American industries or business connected with
feriDg with the just rights of American
working p, pie intended to be secured
to them by the incidental effects of revenue
duties to share in the joint product of labor and
capital employed in American mining and man
ufacturing industrieAto the full measure of the
difference in the cost of their labor and the
labor of those engaged in similar industries in
Europe.
Resolved, That the Senate will concur in no
joint resolution for the final adjournment of the
present session of Congress until after the
passage of such remedies as are specified in the
foregoing resolution.
In the course of his argument Mr. Pugh
asked whether Congress would wipe out all
internal taxes, and allow the necessary rev.
enue to be raised on tariff imports alone.
He had never a clearer or stronger convic-
tion than the conviction that the whisky
tax was perfectly just and wholly unobjec
tiOnable except on the ground that it was a
direct tax There was nothing produced,
owned and consumed that could supply the
government with ninety million dollars of
revenue, with more propriety and less injury
TO any human being than whisky. He had
never heard any valid reason, and did not
believe there was any valid reason why
whisky drinkers should be relieved from the
payment of this tax, and wh' the revenue
it yielded should be extorted by tariff from
consumers of the necessaries of life He
knew of 10 better use to which whisky
could be applied than to the production of
S90,000,000 of revenue necessary to
pay pensions and the interest
on the war debt instead of extorting that
amount from the harmless consumption
Of imported articles. Whe insisted, he
asked, that the luxury of whisky drinking
should be freed from the burden. Was it
the whisky drinkers, or the whisky makers
who declared that there should be no re-
vision of the tariff until every internal
revenue tax was repealed! 1t was not The
cry came the loudest and fiercest from the
manufacturers ard their representatives.
Tie most defiant and uncompro-
missing advocates of free whisky
were manufacturers of protected articles
As general compromise he would repeal
the internal tax upon tobacco, for the sole
reason that tobacco was an agricultural
product, and let the tax on whisky stand for
future consideration. He declared that he
would vote to repel 10 duty on any article
manufactured in the United States, that
would cripple any home industry or impair
the abili y of home competition. No
people, he said, have ever submitted so
long to robbery on the part of their
own government and those who opposed re-
vision of the tariff at the risk of a financial
panic and industrial paralysis became
parties to this robbery and became political
criminals. Both the Republican aud
Democratic parties had promised 20 reduce
the income to the wants of the government,
and it was trifing for the Republicans to
charge upon the Democratic party
the blame of the failure to revise the
tariff. This Congress could not adjourn
until such change was made in
the revenue laws as would stop the flow of
money from the people into the national
Treasury, beyond the needs of the govern
ment. He would put on the free list chem
icals and raw wool of all raw grades, and
salt, and might be willing to add other
articles. He was not in favor however, of
the putting OF iron on the free list. Doing
so would be regarded by ore land owners
and ore-work ers of Alabama, Tennessee,
Virginia and West Virginia as an act of
unjust discrimination i'll favor of
foreign ores. AS to pig iron, on which the
present duty was SG72 per ton, he believed
that duty of 50 would be ample. He
made these remarks to show that there was
not the least danger to the iron ore and pig
iron interests from any reduction OF the
tariff. President Cleveland had in his re-
cent annual message shown patriotism and
courage never exhibited before by any pub
lie man in his position and with his sur
roundings. He said there could be
no mistake as to what the President
believed to be the paramount duty of Con-
gress. There was not single sentence in
the message that was not truth and not the
whole truth At the close of Mr.. Pugh's re
marks the resolution was ordered to be laid
ba foI.l